Okay, I received this family watchdog website in an email from a friend. It's pretty interesting and just a little bit scary.
Here's the deal. You enter your address and it shows a a map of your neighborhood. It shows your address, marked by a little "house icon." It also shows little colored boxes which indicate sex offenders in your area. Click on a little colored box and you get a name and picture of the person along with their crime ... pretty amazing and scary!
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Hearing From God?
Okay! I've really been struggling with something lately and I was thinking maybe I could get some comments on this.
It seems that some believe that, in this day and age, God only speaks through His written word. Granted, I believe that the Bible is the inspired (God-breathed) Word of God written with the personalities of the authors who were supernaturally guided by the Holy Spirit. I also believe the Bible is true, but also has no errors. (All good Bible college stuff.)
While I believe all this, I also believe God speaks to our lives everyday through the Holy Spirit, through others, and through our circumstances. Yes, this leaves room for a lot of misunderstanding - and so God never contradicts His written Word. But, honestly, God's Word does not speak to every decision and experience that I have in my life.
For instance, should I sing at the local National Day of Prayer Breakfast? You could probably show me some scripture that indicates I should or shouldn't. Then given certain circumstances, I might be able to refute your answer with scripture as well. When I pray about this, will God answer me? and how?
Ultimately, I think the discussion is intimately linked with what we believe about the role of the Holy Spirit. Some seem to believe the only roles of the Spirit are to convict the sinner, indwell and seal the believer, and then provide spiritual gifts to each believer as He desires for the building up of the Body of Christ. While those are true, there is much more that we're mission of we only believe those things.
The Holy Spirit guides us, directs us, and comforts us for our daily life. The Bible itself, tells us that only the Spirit enables us to understand the scriptures. The Spirit intercedes for us in prayer as well. In my opinion, the Holy Spirit is the power of the believer to live the Christian life. Without the Spirit, we are hopeless. He takes on the main role in regenerating our lives, thoughts, and behaviors.
While all believers have the Holy Spirit living in them, we do not always surrender ourselves to Him, ultimately surrendering our will to the Father. That is what is meant by being filled with the Spirit - to die to self, continually.
So then, if this is true, how do we hear from God? It is only from reading His written word, or is there a larger picture? Are we denying the power of God and settling on just a form of godliness?
Your thoughts?
It seems that some believe that, in this day and age, God only speaks through His written word. Granted, I believe that the Bible is the inspired (God-breathed) Word of God written with the personalities of the authors who were supernaturally guided by the Holy Spirit. I also believe the Bible is true, but also has no errors. (All good Bible college stuff.)
While I believe all this, I also believe God speaks to our lives everyday through the Holy Spirit, through others, and through our circumstances. Yes, this leaves room for a lot of misunderstanding - and so God never contradicts His written Word. But, honestly, God's Word does not speak to every decision and experience that I have in my life.
For instance, should I sing at the local National Day of Prayer Breakfast? You could probably show me some scripture that indicates I should or shouldn't. Then given certain circumstances, I might be able to refute your answer with scripture as well. When I pray about this, will God answer me? and how?
Ultimately, I think the discussion is intimately linked with what we believe about the role of the Holy Spirit. Some seem to believe the only roles of the Spirit are to convict the sinner, indwell and seal the believer, and then provide spiritual gifts to each believer as He desires for the building up of the Body of Christ. While those are true, there is much more that we're mission of we only believe those things.
The Holy Spirit guides us, directs us, and comforts us for our daily life. The Bible itself, tells us that only the Spirit enables us to understand the scriptures. The Spirit intercedes for us in prayer as well. In my opinion, the Holy Spirit is the power of the believer to live the Christian life. Without the Spirit, we are hopeless. He takes on the main role in regenerating our lives, thoughts, and behaviors.
While all believers have the Holy Spirit living in them, we do not always surrender ourselves to Him, ultimately surrendering our will to the Father. That is what is meant by being filled with the Spirit - to die to self, continually.
So then, if this is true, how do we hear from God? It is only from reading His written word, or is there a larger picture? Are we denying the power of God and settling on just a form of godliness?
Your thoughts?
Blue Like Jazz
There's a couple of books I've read lately that I really liked. This post, I'd like to tell you about Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. It's not quite as heavy as the usual stuff I read, but has some great insight into how the rest of the world sees Christianity.
I'm going to warn you; this is a product of the postmodern age. But I think it's very important to understand that we live in a postmodern world with postmodern people. Postmodernism is a thought pattern more than it is an age label. Everything we are exposed to is influenced by postmodern thought; television, movies, magazines, etc.
The importance of Miller's book, it that it gives you an insight to what people think outside of the alienated church subculture. Basically, Miller presents some autobiographical material regarding his journey toward God. He spends a good amount of time working through the struggle of wanting to know God, but not wanting to be involved in "religion."
Like most of us postmodern natives, Miller rejected "religion" but still sought a spiritual connection. What is beautiful about his personable writing is that he still finds his way to the true God, but without all the "baggage" (that I am getting very tired of). I really enjoyed his conversational writing style because it was wrought with realism and authenticity. I would suggest Blue Like Jazz to anyone in the established church who is wondering what the rest of the world is thinking.
Next time, I would like to tell you about another book I read recently by one of my favorite authors: Len Sweet's Out of the Question, Into the Mystery.
I'm going to warn you; this is a product of the postmodern age. But I think it's very important to understand that we live in a postmodern world with postmodern people. Postmodernism is a thought pattern more than it is an age label. Everything we are exposed to is influenced by postmodern thought; television, movies, magazines, etc.The importance of Miller's book, it that it gives you an insight to what people think outside of the alienated church subculture. Basically, Miller presents some autobiographical material regarding his journey toward God. He spends a good amount of time working through the struggle of wanting to know God, but not wanting to be involved in "religion."
Like most of us postmodern natives, Miller rejected "religion" but still sought a spiritual connection. What is beautiful about his personable writing is that he still finds his way to the true God, but without all the "baggage" (that I am getting very tired of). I really enjoyed his conversational writing style because it was wrought with realism and authenticity. I would suggest Blue Like Jazz to anyone in the established church who is wondering what the rest of the world is thinking.
Next time, I would like to tell you about another book I read recently by one of my favorite authors: Len Sweet's Out of the Question, Into the Mystery.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
New Video and Photos of Hannaford Worship
Though you might be interested in some photos and a video of worship at Hannaford. Check it out on my ecpowell.online website (click here). Also of interest is another video we produced for the youth group here at Hannaford (click here).
Powell Family Update?
Like I said in my last post, I haven't been very faithful to blogging. When I let so much time go by, it's hard to remember how much has happened. We'll here it is...
If you remember, Christmas was very busy and so we were really needing some time off so we took a two-week vacation back to SoCal. While there, we tried to take some more time and do less. Mostly, we got the opportunity to go to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and visited two churchs: Crossroads Christian Church in Corona and North Hills Community Church in Claremont (Upland). They were both different from each other, but great. The music really led us into worship and the messages spoke to our lives. We also made it back to Helena, safe and sound (no deer incidents). Unfortunately, the time-off didn't have a lasting effect because of a number of issues back home in Helena.
Some of the other events that have happened are:
If you remember, Christmas was very busy and so we were really needing some time off so we took a two-week vacation back to SoCal. While there, we tried to take some more time and do less. Mostly, we got the opportunity to go to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and visited two churchs: Crossroads Christian Church in Corona and North Hills Community Church in Claremont (Upland). They were both different from each other, but great. The music really led us into worship and the messages spoke to our lives. We also made it back to Helena, safe and sound (no deer incidents). Unfortunately, the time-off didn't have a lasting effect because of a number of issues back home in Helena.
Some of the other events that have happened are:
- Kellin had his 6th birthday (at Godfather's Pizza again).
- You may not know that Andrea has been working a 3-day 5am-9pm shift at Target since August. Well, she quit last week.
- Andrik went skiing for the first time with his 5th grade class on a field trip. In school, he almost got all A's on his report card (one B).
- Construction is coming along at Hannaford, but we don't have any new photos, yet. (1) We've expanded, roofed, floored, walled, and painted our fellowship hall. We still are expecting to put in some room dividers. (2) We've also had new siding put up on the remainder of the church including the in process sanctuary expansion. (3) Finally, we've added windows to the sanctuary. It really gives it a different feel and a lot of light (no more lights-down worship session, projector screen is pretty faded).
- We got the dog a new toy. It's a rope with a little "tire" on one end He loves playing "tog-o-war" with any of us!
These Blogs Are Worth A Read
It seems that I'm not very faithful to this blogging thing, but I've been inspired by some great bloggers. It's not just a geek thing anymore. I've been pretty captivated lately by a few blogs that have really gotten me thinking.
CHURCH MARKETING SUCKS
I've mentioned one before called Church Marketing Sucks. They have a lot of great thoughts for churches to make them think about how they are perceived by congregants and their communities. I would check it out. I love their peer reviews of potential church literature and websites. While you're at it, check out this hilarious radio spot for St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
TONY MORGAN
Another great one is Tony Morgan's blog. He's one of the pastors at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. He posts the weekly stats for Granger, relevant quotes, current trends in church culture, and even some personal thoughts. I love his experience buying an HP all-in-one printer (read here). I was on the floor laughing when he posted photos of some other uses for his failed printer!
EBAY ATHEIST
Finally, I just started tuning into a blog called The eBay Atheist. Basically, Off The Map ministries hired an atheist offering his services in eBay. They've asked him to visit churches and write up a survey of each one. As of today, he's only visited 4 churches, but his posts are quite thought-provoking. It might make us re-think the way we do some things...
Anyway, I hope you have a chance to visit and digest some of these resources. If you do, I'd love to hear some of your comments. Leave them below so everyone can read them.
CHURCH MARKETING SUCKS
I've mentioned one before called Church Marketing Sucks. They have a lot of great thoughts for churches to make them think about how they are perceived by congregants and their communities. I would check it out. I love their peer reviews of potential church literature and websites. While you're at it, check out this hilarious radio spot for St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
TONY MORGAN
Another great one is Tony Morgan's blog. He's one of the pastors at Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana. He posts the weekly stats for Granger, relevant quotes, current trends in church culture, and even some personal thoughts. I love his experience buying an HP all-in-one printer (read here). I was on the floor laughing when he posted photos of some other uses for his failed printer!
EBAY ATHEIST
Finally, I just started tuning into a blog called The eBay Atheist. Basically, Off The Map ministries hired an atheist offering his services in eBay. They've asked him to visit churches and write up a survey of each one. As of today, he's only visited 4 churches, but his posts are quite thought-provoking. It might make us re-think the way we do some things...
Anyway, I hope you have a chance to visit and digest some of these resources. If you do, I'd love to hear some of your comments. Leave them below so everyone can read them.
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